Two types of bus in particular are nowadays widespread, in particular in the automotive field. The first to have been implemented is the CAN (acronym for Controller Area Network) bus. This bus was standardized by way of the standard ISO 11898.
Its practically universal deployment in numerous industries, in particular in the automotive field, has made it an almost indispensable technology.
The ‘FlexRay’ serial bus, developed more recently, is another bus communication system.
This technology was initially developed to meet the specific needs of the automotive or aeronautical sector in a manner more efficient than the CAN bus. A consortium comprising various industrial groups promoted the use of ‘FlexRay’ serial buses, and said bus was standardized by way of a set of ISO standards, between standard ISO 17458-1 and standard ISO 17458-5.
The FlexRay bus has the advantage of enabling the transit of data at bit rates of the order of 10 Mb/s, as opposed to 1 Mb/s to 5 Mb/s for the CAN bus.
In particular in the field of the automotive industry, the two standards—CAN and FlexRay—exist side by side, FlexRay being beneficial for its greater capabilities in terms of bit rate, but the CAN bus being historically implanted in many certified electronic appliances to such an extent that it survives and continues to be used to a significant extent, including in new appliances currently being developed.
Now, these two standards are not immediately compatible. In the context of the design of new appliances, it is generally necessary to design electronic modules that are intended either to be connected to a CAN bus or to be connected to a FlexRay bus. This forces manufacturers, in particular automotive equipment manufacturers, to develop various references for these new appliances, comprising electronic modules equipped with different transceivers, depending on whether said bus complies with the CAN standard or with the FlexRay standard. However, this requirement to develop separate transceivers, to be integrated into the electronic appliances—computers, sensors—in order to take account of the specificities of CAN and FlexRay buses, creates additional costs.
In an attempt to mitigate this problem, electronic modules comprising both types of transceiver—CAN and FlexRay—have been developed. However, this solution is not satisfactory, in that it is not flexible and is still expensive. In addition, according to this prior art, it is necessary to have two communication buses present in order to enable the module to dialog both in compliance with the CAN protocol and in compliance with the FlexRay protocol.
Document US 2011/0022766 gives an example of such a known transceiver.
A need has therefore emerged for a transceiver that has the advantage of being both economical and able to interact with both a CAN bus and a FlexRay bus.